YouTube is introducing a new feature entitled “Clips” to its interface, allowing users to make short videos from memorable occasions in livestreams. And according to official description "A clip is a short, looping part of a video or live stream. It's like a GIF with sound. Want to create your own clips? Watch any video that allows clipping, then tap Clip below the video. Clips you create show up in your Library."
With livestreams becoming more and more prevalent on YouTube, extending beyond the realm of gaming to Qs and As, charity fundraisers, and even music, Clips feels like the natural next step in the process. Short format clips from livestreams have already gained a lot of traction from the YouTube community, as users publish clips of particularly humorous moments from such videos. The issue was that it used to be an arduous task to manually crop a video apart until that one hidden gem was located. Exacerbating difficulty is the fact that most traditional livestreams don’t necessarily have timestamps to them. This new feature, while not fixing the former, certainly helps with the latter.
Providing YouTube’s vast user-base with a cropping feature built into the video-streaming application’s interface, allowing viewers to crop from 5 up to 60 seconds worth of live-streaming content. While certainly limited in scope, such a time limit is sufficient in allowing users to share lovable highlights and moments from, say, their favorite YouTuber streaming Animal Crossing. While both of the previous examples have been gaming oriented, there’s really no limit to what can be cropped up, and this author is sure that a myriad of other creative livestreams are out there.
Adding further substance and credibility to YouTube’s latest feature is that it isn’t really a brand new foray either. Due to the popularity of short clips from livestreams, Twitch itself has also had Clips for its user-base since a while now. Due to the ability of these innocuous, under one minute, videos to trend online, it seems like adding an easier interface for users to play around with is a must for any livestreaming service.
Speaking of interfaces, how does Clips show up on the YouTube space? Well, they’re created during a viewing session of someone’s stream or on any non live video. A scissors icon under the video denotes the ability to make clips. Clicking or tapping on the icon will allow users to select the timestamps in which their favorite moment occurred. Then all one has to do is add a title, and click Share Clip, allowing YouTube to generate a URL for one’s viewing and sharing pleasure. These clips can either be posted as videos or shared/forwarded on social media platforms, or plain texting as URL, even. A dedicated tab has also been assigned to house all clips that users have made.
Here's an example one Clip that we created in our test:
PS: It appears the Clips feature is not working properly when we embed it, currently Clips feature is working fine when viewing on YouTube directly.
So, when is this feature rolling out? Although YouTube hasn’t given any specific date regarding this feature, alpha testing has already begun, with all users being able to generate clips out of a select few livestream videos and non live videos. According to YouTube support page, "Clips [feature] is currently in limited alpha. Right now, a limited number of channels have the clips feature turned on for their channel. While Creators can’t sign up to participate in the alpha, we hope to roll out this feature soon." As with all of these projects, after working out any remaining kinks in the feature, the company will make the feature widespread and public within a few months or weeks.
Read next: YouTube and Netflix have made you care about AV1, as these platforms are adopting it soon for hardware decoding support
With livestreams becoming more and more prevalent on YouTube, extending beyond the realm of gaming to Qs and As, charity fundraisers, and even music, Clips feels like the natural next step in the process. Short format clips from livestreams have already gained a lot of traction from the YouTube community, as users publish clips of particularly humorous moments from such videos. The issue was that it used to be an arduous task to manually crop a video apart until that one hidden gem was located. Exacerbating difficulty is the fact that most traditional livestreams don’t necessarily have timestamps to them. This new feature, while not fixing the former, certainly helps with the latter.
Providing YouTube’s vast user-base with a cropping feature built into the video-streaming application’s interface, allowing viewers to crop from 5 up to 60 seconds worth of live-streaming content. While certainly limited in scope, such a time limit is sufficient in allowing users to share lovable highlights and moments from, say, their favorite YouTuber streaming Animal Crossing. While both of the previous examples have been gaming oriented, there’s really no limit to what can be cropped up, and this author is sure that a myriad of other creative livestreams are out there.
Adding further substance and credibility to YouTube’s latest feature is that it isn’t really a brand new foray either. Due to the popularity of short clips from livestreams, Twitch itself has also had Clips for its user-base since a while now. Due to the ability of these innocuous, under one minute, videos to trend online, it seems like adding an easier interface for users to play around with is a must for any livestreaming service.
Speaking of interfaces, how does Clips show up on the YouTube space? Well, they’re created during a viewing session of someone’s stream or on any non live video. A scissors icon under the video denotes the ability to make clips. Clicking or tapping on the icon will allow users to select the timestamps in which their favorite moment occurred. Then all one has to do is add a title, and click Share Clip, allowing YouTube to generate a URL for one’s viewing and sharing pleasure. These clips can either be posted as videos or shared/forwarded on social media platforms, or plain texting as URL, even. A dedicated tab has also been assigned to house all clips that users have made.
Here's an example one Clip that we created in our test:
PS: It appears the Clips feature is not working properly when we embed it, currently Clips feature is working fine when viewing on YouTube directly.
So, when is this feature rolling out? Although YouTube hasn’t given any specific date regarding this feature, alpha testing has already begun, with all users being able to generate clips out of a select few livestream videos and non live videos. According to YouTube support page, "Clips [feature] is currently in limited alpha. Right now, a limited number of channels have the clips feature turned on for their channel. While Creators can’t sign up to participate in the alpha, we hope to roll out this feature soon." As with all of these projects, after working out any remaining kinks in the feature, the company will make the feature widespread and public within a few months or weeks.
Read next: YouTube and Netflix have made you care about AV1, as these platforms are adopting it soon for hardware decoding support
